On the right is a gallery of BusinessWeek's list of 20 best business leaders of 2007. Among those 20 are three Indians.
- Mukesh Ambani, Reliance Industries: For a brief period in October, Mukesh Amani was hailed as the richest man in the world. That's when his $23 billion group Reliance Industries, India's second-largest private-sector conglomerate, with interests in petrochemicals, oil and gas, and synthetic fiber, saw its market capitalization zoom to $63 billion. A chemical engineer, Ambani is credited with setting up the world's largest greenfield refinery in Gujarat. He has won many oil blocks around the world and is bidding for more. In 2005, Ambani had a very public split with younger brother Anil. In the division of the spoils, he had to let go of his cherished telecom business. Recently, he gave his wife a $59 million private jet as a birthday gift. Ambani is also building his dream house: a 27-floor mansion replete with two swimming pools, two underground car parks, a 100-seat home theater, and a helipad.
- Lakshmi Mittal, ArcelorMittal: This year, the Indian-born entrepreneur Lakshmi Mittal, 57, completed his $38 billion takeover of Luxembourg-based Arcelor to form ArcelorMittal (MT), the world's largest steel company. The deal started out as a hostile one, but Mittal has won over key Arcelor people, retaining a substantial chunk of the top management. ArcelorMittal's results have been solid. For the first nine months of the year, the company reported sales of $77.2 billion and operating income of $11.5 billion, a 34% pro forma gain over the previous year. This fall, Mittal took a big step into China, a difficult yet crucial market, through a deal that will eventually give him control of China Oriental Group, a Hong Kong-listed company that produces steel in China's Hebei province.
- Ratan Tata, The Tata Group: It was Ratan Tata's year to grab global headlines. The soft-spoken architect educated in the U.S. at Cornell University has set his $29 billion conglomerate on a scorching global growth path. From picking up steel companies, hotels, coal mines, and tea brands, he is all set to revolutionize the concept of a small car. Tata also made India's largest-ever global acquisition, when he picked up Anglo-Dutch steel maker Corus for $12 billion. And Tata bought out two hotels in the U.S., the Ritz Carlton in Boston and Campton Place in San Francisco. He's emerged as the top bidder for Ford Motor's (F) Jaguar and Land Rover brands. Now all eyes are on Tata as he gears up to display his cherished $2,500 car at the Indian Auto Show in New Delhi in January. And with all Tata's flagship companies having global ambitions, there may be more big-ticket acquisitions for the group in the coming year.
That's an alphabetical list, so Ambani and Tata are #1 and #20.
Meanwhile, Fortune magazine has its own list, the Power 25: 25 Most Powerful People in Business.
Some are empire builders. Others are hired guns. But if they truly have world-class oomph, they're on Fortune's subjective - yet really quite accurate - list of the most powerful businesspeople in the world.
Three Indians here, too, but not exactly the same three.
- #14: Lakshmi Mittal: Had Lakshmi Mittal, 57, remained in his native India and joined the family steel company, odds are he'd merely be a prosperous local businessman. Instead he set out on his own and became the Andrew Carnegie of our era, with operations in more than 60 countries, 320,000 employees - and a personal fortune of more than $40 billion. He built his empire on a bet that steel had a great future for someone who could achieve sufficient scale. After purchasing former state-owned companies in Eastern Europe, Mittal bought into the U.S. in 2004 and last year won a bruising battle for Europe's Arcelor. Today his company is three times the size of its nearest competitor, and Mittal has become a symbol of globalization.
- #22: Indra Nooyi: Smart, irreverent and armed with a global perspective, Nooyi is the most powerful woman in business. She was the main architect of the dramatic reshaping of Pepsi that began in the mid-1990s. The company jettisoned restaurants, picked up Gatorade and Quaker, and created a portfolio that put Pepsi a decade ahead of the pack in anticipating consumers' desire for both healthier products and more sustainable business practices. The numbers have been good too. Annual net income more than doubled to $5.6 billion in the five years that ended last year, and the stock price increased 68% over the same period. Nooyi, who became CEO in October 2006, calls this "performance with a purpose." Her goal: to make Pepsi a model 21st-century company - both responsible and successful.
- #23: Ratan Tata: As head of one of India's most venerated family businesses, Tata, 69, has unique stature. The Tata Group, which is one of India's largest conglomerates, includes India's largest software house, one of its most prestigious hotel chains (the Taj), and sprawling steelmaking operations, as well as leading players in consulting, wireless, and cable services. Since taking over in 1991, Tata has made numerous big-ticket deals. But his heart is set on a project closer to home: creating a $2,500 car that middle-class Indians can buy.
Interestingly, in India itself, the most prestigious of such honors, the Business India Business Man of the Year, went to Anand Mahindra of Manhindra & Mahindra, whose company finished second to Tata in the Jaguar/Land Rover bidding.
Anyone following Indian business care to analyze these listings?
What do you think? Post your comments below.
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